Hepatitis C is recognized as a chronic viral disease of the liver which is characterized by liver disease. Although drugs targeting the liver are in wide use and have shown effectiveness, toxicity and other side effects have limited their usefulness. Inhibitors of hepatitis C virus (HCV) are useful to limit the establishment and progression of infection by HCV as well as in diagnostic assays for HCV.
There is a need for new HCV therapeutic agents. In particular, there is a need for HCV therapeutic agents that have broad activity against HCV genotypes (e.g. genotypes 1a, 1b, 2a, 3a, 4a). There is also a particular need for agents that are less susceptible to viral resistance. Resistance mutations to inhibitors have been described for HCV NS5A for genotypes 1a and 1b in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, September 2010, Volume 54, p. 3641-3650.